Blessing Beyond Bypass, Rachel Allen on her Tender Medicine for Hard Times

Rachel Allen’s New Book From Seed House Press

“Blessing Beyond Pass: Tender Medicine for Hard Times” is Rachel Allen’s new book.    It is beautifully written and crafted to allow us to get under the surface and truly feel. Beyond the platitudes in general niceties of daily life, we can be shamed for feeling negative emotions. The daily barrage of negativity, anxiety, injustice, violence and marginalization of people can create a sense of rage, dispear, or hopeless.     This book takes that head one.

Rachel Allen has built vast and inclusive community,   She has served other’s through her yoga, song, workshops, out reach programs and various organizations.    Rachel’s shares her experience on how the rage and frustration of injustices can be channeled.    A different way to observe, discern and move through these hard times.  A pathway to invite in curiosity and connection, while holding her own values and boundaries with gentle strength .

If you haven’t hopeless, angry, disempowered, marginalized, or traumatized,  this is good medicine, for you and others.   I enjoy you to get a few copies and share them with your friend.    Blessing Beyond Pass:  Tender Medicine for Hard Times is the Inaugural book release from Seed House Press,  Go to YogaSong.net for more information about Rachel and her new book.

Transcript

Josh Meeder: 0:02

Welcome to the great things, LLC podcast. I'm your host, Josh Meeder. Welcome, listeners, today's podcast, I get to share a story of someone who I have just been absolutely had a joy and pleasure of getting to know. I could take a lot of time. I don't know if there's enough hours in the day in this podcast to just kind of go over some of the stuff that Rachel Allen has done and who she is and the community that she's built. So let's, without further ado, I want to introduce and welcome Rachel to the podcast.

Rachel Allen: 0:36

Thank you. I'm so happy to be here.

Josh Meeder: 0:39

Rachel leading up to this I was I was I've been really struggling. I was like, how do you introduce what you've done, because you've done a lot. And one of the things that, you know, we have taglines, but yours really does kind of boil it down. So to merging music, yoga and community. When you share that with me. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's, that's you. But it's also much broader than that. So we're here today. And one of the things that we're going to be talking about is your book that has just been released blessings beyond the bypass tender medicine for hard times. So why don't you start with sharing a little bit about yourself and you things you've done to this point, and we'll get into how the book came in and what this is for, for these times that we all find ourselves in?

Rachel Allen: 1:27

Right? Yeah, I always find it interesting. When people ask what what I do in the world, I always just laugh. And my my sister Kelly, she lives in Australia, and she works in the sector of dealing with people that like housing, she always tells me I'm a musical social worker, which of course, there's no like, you know, credentialing for that. But that's what she calls me. And so I what, in a nutshell, what what I what I intend to do to all the spaces that I show up is to be in spaces with people where where anything is possible, where the potential for healing lies with the potential for authenticity, for for whatever is real, to show up for that person and to transform but perhaps, so a lot of the work that I do, I don't show up with an agenda other than to be in the space feel what's in the space? And how can what what, what is the best tool that I could bring to respond to the space that I'm in with people. I do that in hospice work, I've done that for 18 years, I play the harp. So I work with people that are in any phase of transition, in which could be somebody a year from their transition, it could be during their transition, it could be with their family as part of that or just that person alone if they don't have family. So I've done that work for 18 years. I am a yoga teacher, I bring music, it's infused throughout my practice. And a lot of my practice is in partnership with organizations that serve different types of communities. For example, I for 10 years, I've worked with our rape crisis center and domestic violence center to serve survivors of trauma. I also come into other spaces, such as state mental hospital, their forensic lockdown unit and other spaces like that, and and offer practice as well as in my community right now. I'm still teaching outside, which is really nice. It's more like a public space where anybody can come. And yeah, so I show up in different places and spaces with people and hope to connect through music through shared practice, and invite that that sort of, like what everybody brings to that energies is equally important is what I'm bringing. So sort of, you know, working with people in those spaces in places. And as

Josh Meeder: 3:59

part of your work, a lot of it has been based around trauma informed work, underserved in justices, and really how that is woven into the community and how they community heal. So from what I've learned from you, a lot of it is this place of trauma informed health in healing and growing.

Rachel Allen: 4:21

Right, right. Part of part of the experience of trauma is not feeling that one is worthy of care. Part of the experience of trauma is is you know, the absence of connection. And so we don't heal in silos and when we can come alongside people rather than come over people that come alongside people. I really strongly believe that we that pathologizing trauma is not helpful. It's it's a normal response of the central nervous system to keep ourselves alive. When someone experiences trauma, you know, the way that their nervous system responded a lot of times, especially if it's the freeze response, there's judgement. So finding ways to to support the integration of somebody's nervous system is is, you know, even with with our own presence, you know, having that awareness that each being has has value because they exist, not because of what they've done or haven't done, but because they are here. And so, you know, finding ways to integrate that into how we are with people as part of trauma informed care.

Josh Meeder: 5:40

And with the concept of trauma, especially over the last few years, one, trauma is present, and so many and if it's unaddressed, it can manifest in a lot of different ways. And trauma can be big or big or small, in quotation marks. But the reality is, whatever trauma is to that person is big to that person and learning how to meet. So over the last few years with, with the pandemic, with all the unrest, both socially, environmentally, economically, politically, it feels like trauma has actually been infused in daily life to a higher degree blessings beyond the bypass is a book that, in its title explains a tender medicine for hard times. These have been hard times in recent years. What was the the impetus, or the thought that created the spark for you in creating this book?

Rachel Allen: 6:36

Sure. I think one of the things that shows up for me often is sitting down and deeply listening in, which is a process called unitate. of listening, like seeking to connect into what's beyond the surface noise that's present, it's really loud, and to sit and really deeply listen to, to what are the needs that are present? You know, and and what can I possibly, how can I possibly be of service? How can I possibly be of service I had created, I had different people, my community reached out to me over COVID, and one was one of our local health care systems. And they were this is at a time when like, the emergency room, I mean, that the COVID units were overflowing, the deaths were really high. And, and I created, like just tools for health care workers, like how you know, and here they are in respirators and, you know, but like, how can you prep? How do you prepare for something like that, to walk into those types of situations, and then you have to go home, you know, to your family. So, so giving people, you know, some of the things that I offers, tools are so simple, but people don't know how to access them. You know, and I think this blessings beyond bypass, emerged from just like, recognizing that all of our experiences are so different during this this time, all of our Express experience is not the same as somebody who's going in and being in that environment. But what can I offer to someone, I don't know what their experience is like, but what can I offer that could be a service. And so, so many people that I love, were really hurting, including myself. During that time, I had a friend, my neighbor, who was a nurse in a long term skilled care facility, and she actually had to live up there for six weeks, during the most intense part of COVID. She loved her family for six weeks, to live there. And so it was just sort of, you know, seeing the some of the extraordinary things that people were doing some of the sacrifices and wanting to honor that as well as as just seeing that people were in need of medicine. And and when I say medicine, I mean something that could reach them at the soul level. And everything that was up here that was the noise wasn't even touching that. So wanting to dive a little deeper, and offer what is what is here like in for me, there's always this part of my practice is always to when I'm feeling things like anger and grief and sadness, is to like draw deep into what what is the value system that I come from, you know, what, what are the values that I hold? And can I allow what I deeply care about to inform my anger and grief and allow that to sort of tracing that back to compassion, to love to to caring for the desire for connection, and allowing the building my capacity to hold space for all of those things, in my being hold space for all of those emotions that are challenging, as well as the ones that I that I draw from. If that makes any sense.

Josh Meeder: 9:57

It does and that that was that tender point. Right, that really hooked me in your words in the book is the place that we all have impact in and are impacted by what is out there. So, we do feel these things and especially it was how you drew the pandemic and still coming out is there is anger, there is grief, there is feelings of injustice, there is feelings of disempowerment and all these negative things, and in your opening, in the foreword of the book, you speak to that a little bit about like, for lack of a better our word, the whoo culture or like the Guru's like, oh, it's all love and light, and it's almost shaming the the shadow side and not allowing that to be recognized, and then how to transmute that in one to identify it, to see where it's coming to check in. And then to identify it into a place where you can speak from compassion, even when there's disagreement.

Rachel Allen: 10:58

Right, and a lot of that is felt in the body, when we try to create when we, we have the tendency, and I'll speak just to my own experience, because the only one I have, I have the tendency to, to more be analyzing it and creating a story about it, rather than just allowing myself to land in my body and sort of experience it and build capacity for something else to emerge there. So, so for me, a lot of what emerged from the book was was getting out of the story that my mind was telling me which was, was connected to the noise it was up here, and getting back into my body and allowing myself to feel and, and, and create space for my deepest held values that I that I have to feel all of that in my body, then the words come from there. Instead of boys, it's up here.

Josh Meeder: 11:46

There's also a place of expansion in that process. When we have a stimulus or a reaction, there's an emotion, and there's the tendency to lean forward is to move into it without taking that pause to look back to reflect. And, you know, again, when you say speaking to experience, I'll speak to mind, I have learned that if if there is that, that space, the reactions and the responses become better, they become more connected, they become more informed. If you can just realize and create space between the reaction this book seems to give the the tools as you say, they're, they're simple. They're short, they're reflections and affirmations and prayers, for the wisdom and the patience to learn how you can show up. In our earlier conversations, this was a place that I'm always curious about is how do we move those forward from a place of let's say, there's an a sense of injustice, someone's not able to defend ourselves or they're underserved? And there's anger at the injustice? How does that translate because it can go to outright protest? It can go to withdraw. But in cases like that, what are some of the the thoughts or experiences that you're sharing in this book? What do we do with that when we feel

Rachel Allen: 13:09

right, and I think I think we feel all of the things I know, just for an example, I'll just share an example that's informed me greatly is, is having the experience of parenting my daughter, who has spina bifida. And I had no idea before I had her that the world was created by able bodied people, like I had no idea, because I'm an able bodied person. And environmental obstacles weren't something that I noticed, you know, and it's through, like, parenting her. There's times where I've felt like like, like blind rage, and like times where she hasn't been able to access supports because of maybe a building or maybe any number of things. And then sort of like, okay, but what, what is what, what do I model to her? What do I model to her? And a lot of it's like, even in people's attitudes, like when she was younger, and still even now, but moving pictures, younger people would come up to us and say, What's wrong with her? And my husband? And I would say, she's really mean, you know? And then people would be like, you know, giving a different answer. People would be really confused by that. But it was, you know, just, but it was something like it like it brought an awareness like, well, I probably have that attitude that I have to unpack as well. You know, so it's sort of like a whole. We're always we're always given the opportunities to unpack beliefs and beliefs are in the yogic tradition, some scars, they're their neural networks in the brain. And oftentimes, we don't understand how our beliefs are informed or they they're informed by culture. We grew up and they're informed by, you know, our family, the community we grew up in, some of them are acquired through our personal experiences, but doesn't I mean, they're always the best beliefs to have. And so So sort of being able to objectively unpack beliefs and and look at, well, like, what, what is what, what, or is there a path for a way to change beliefs. And when Riley was, I think, nine months, I started with two other moms. And for three years, we raised money to fund we raised $250,000. And we built an all inclusive playground, in our community that was three years of like channeling that that awareness like I realized when when, when my daughter was six months old, and like, she's not able to access any of these playgrounds around here, even though they're supposedly ADA compliant. You can't take a wheelchair through March, you know, it just you can't. And so, so it was sort of like, oh, that that was like, that was something that made me cry, and it made me rage, and it made me scream. But if I would have stayed in that place of crying, raging and screaming, and curling up in a little ball and saying, This is so unfair, Life is so unfair, it wouldn't have been possible to have this playground that now still exists. So, you know, I think all of those things show up and it just understanding like, like, allowing them to happen. I mean, I've learned a lot through raising my daughter, and also affirming for her that nobody's doing you a favor, these are rights that exist that for you as a human being. So when you need to access support, nobody's doing you a favor, these rights, these are, these are your rights as a human, it might take more collaboration and cooperation. But one of the things that I have come to realize is in that space where there might be injustice, and it takes more effort to bring someone to the table that they're to bring that person to the table is like so worth it. Because their experience is so different than mine. And I would not know that if that person's voice wasn't wasn't present. If that meandering answer to your question makes any sense. If it takes, I think it takes a lot of work, personally, and you know, unpacking the neural networks, being Honestly, when I first found out I was having a child was funny with it, I thought, Oh, does this mean I can't go camping anymore. You know, I mean, my, my thoughts were selfish was like, Oh, this is gonna be inconvenient for things like this. And it's like, yeah, it is gonna be inconvenient for things like this, and you do it anyway.

Josh Meeder: 17:36

Right? And you learn. And in my belief system, and I think we've kind of resonated with this, when I see a situation, my first go to is, is a creating separation or connection. And that's kind of my gateway. And when it goes into separation, it's a it's a different pathway for me. And in there has been so much separation in recent years, just really the marginalization of people just by titles, like, oh, you believe this, or you're leaning this way, or you're supporting this. And for whatever's happened, it seems we're now just really putting people in boxes right off, and you're taking away their humanity and their their authenticity, and it closes down conversation. And it's like, well, how do you bridge gaps? How do you bridge gaps with someone who may believe something that is so antithetical to every fiber in your being, and not just go straight into judgment and condemnation? And you said, curiosity? And I thought that was such a wise, gentle way in to find that. So how does someone develop a curiosity? Or what does that look like? That's first self reflection can be uncomfortable if you're not used to doing the inner work,

Rachel Allen: 18:54

right. And I think like resourcing ourselves for discomfort as part of that, and and understanding that understanding our nervous systems is crucial to doing any this kind of work, recognizing that we will be our nervous systems will be activated when we're having difficult conversations, recognizing that some of that activation will prevent us from deeply listening to someone, and being and that doesn't mean when I'm talking to someone, or if I have a conversation with someone, it doesn't mean that I'm accepting their beliefs. And it doesn't mean that I'm not creating a boundary for myself. And it doesn't mean that I might not even reflect back to them. But I'm going to do it in a way that's not shaming to them. And just like from Curiosity, but I think one of the things that happens is when you're talking about these these sort of silos is is you know, we don't know what other people's experiences are. We can't I can't know what it is to be someone other than myself. But I can listen to someone without saying, oh, yeah, I know how you feel or Oh, that happened to so and you know, I think like Being able to listen to someone, and maybe reflect back to them? Well, I heard you say this word, can you tell me what that word means to you? Or? Well, I'm so curious about that, that feeling that you shared when when you read that sign? Or, you know, I think that it takes us, you know, part of my own practice in doing justice work has been resourcing myself for discomfort, and it's not going to kill me to be uncomfortable. You know, I can, I can resource myself I can go my capacity for discomfort, because I think that that is where growth happens. Is

Josh Meeder: 20:41

it discomfort is almost that that icing or that surface layer, that you have to crack through to find that place of connection? Because then everyone's unique and individual experiences, my world belief that there are some, some real universals and some real aspects of humanity that, you know, can find common ground. And to me, it's how do we get into that to start from that, rather than the outward?

Rachel Allen: 21:10

Right? Right. Right. And I think it's, it's, it's tearing down the walls that we put up, when in our conversations, you know, being able to do that and being able to be with some of the rawness of that, and being able to be in conversation without resolution. Because I mean, honestly, some of these things that have been around here for, you know, racism has been here for 400 years, do we think, do I have the capacity or drug the ability to believe that, so I can say something that's going to change that? You know, what I mean? So, you know, how do we how do we be with one another? And I think, I think about this often where we we skate on this, like thin veneer of politeness and niceness. And I'm not saying that the opposite of that is rudeness and call out culture because that's, that's like, oh, but But can we have conflict? Can we can we, you know, we have to learn how to talk about our humanity with one another without shutting down. We know how to talk about the weather, I'm tired of talking about the weather, I don't want to talk about the weather and

Josh Meeder: 22:13

what happens every day. So

Rachel Allen: 22:16

unless it's something catastrophic, but I think we have to, we have to learn how to talk about our humanity, and that's part of that connection, you know, being able to connect with somebody without needing to say, Oh, I know how you feel. But being able to just like, wow, that person, I heard the pain in their voice,

Josh Meeder: 22:36

you know, we're witnessing someone's experience. Right?

Rachel Allen: 22:39

Right. That witness experience is really Yeah, yeah.

Josh Meeder: 22:44

And the trust, again, love what you said about being comfortable with the unresolved, because it's, it's a process, it's not a path, and we're not changing, long held cultural beliefs versus, you know, family beliefs. But when in just simple human human interaction terms, if you find someone that you're at odds with, as soon as you don't give them space to be heard, it's, it's always it's always confrontation, if you can go into that space, and at least they feel heard, it brings that energy down. And learning to cultivate those tools is such such a gift to share with the world. But also you're working with teachers in different modalities to say, hey, how do you create this safe space in these these trainings? So I know you've done that in some of the community organizations that you've been in, let's dive into that a little bit of the safe spaces you've created and how that ability to see witness and allow to be heard has manifested within your community.

Rachel Allen: 23:52

Right. And I would call them more brave spaces, because I can't assume that I know what a safe space is for everyone. When I'm when I'm working in certain environments, we'll often form what we call community agreements. So people can share what they need for themselves to be in that space. For example, I work with a lot of people in recovery. So so often people will say, I need everybody here to be sober in this space. So that that might be a community agreement. Another one might be I don't want to I don't want people to talk about politics here or, you know, so some of those things can be established through people sharing that, you know, sharing what, what, what they need to have it be a safe space, confidentiality, you know, things like that. But I think, more importantly, is a space where people can just be themselves, you know, you know, to show up and be mourning or celebrating, and that can shift, it can shift like the container that that's held in has to be sort of like malleable What can't be this like, concrete form, you know, you know, people come, especially doing trauma work, people come with a myriad of experiences and responses and are all different places on that, that path. Which is why I also work in collaboration with other professionals in those spaces. So there's like, not just me, there's, you know that there's a sort of a shared energy towards, you know, co creating a lot of those, a lot of the spaces and a lot of it for me, too, I think I mentioned, when I go into the forensic lockdown unit at Torrance, it's intense, there's corrections officers everywhere there, whatever, those little radios, I don't know, if they have a different name to help with technology, radios, CD, whatever, they're, you know, going off and announcements are happening and, and inviting people to breathe, and I close my eyes in that space where there's like, 75 people in a circle around me, and there's like, 10, CEOs walking all around, and I close my eyes, and I feel after about two or three breaths cycles. And I don't know, if that would energy would shift if my eyes are open, but I know that I close my eyes every time and the energy shifts, just from allowing myself to be vulnerable in that space. And that that communication can shift that energy not let I'm the authority, and then I'm like, putting a hierarchical energy towards my, my, my place in the circle, but um, to the best of my ability facilitating in modeling that vulnerability, and that, that way of accessing presence.

Josh Meeder: 26:45

Because that's, that's unique. And in your your position, because you have people that are coming to you by choice, and in some cases, it may be adjudication or they may not want to be there. So creating that, that that openness, or that vulnerability has to shift radically between between those two scenarios, I would imagine.

Rachel Allen: 27:07

It does. It does. And it's so interesting. I didn't share this with you before. But a couple years ago, this was another prison environment that I was going into for five years, I taught at Cambria County Prison, which is a county facility, which county facilities can be challenging, because they don't have the programming that state and federal institutions have. And it's, it's pretty intense. But one of the corrections officers ended up coming to my regular class, it was here in my home studio, and I had it open. And it was so interesting. Like she came to the class with her partner who was also a corrections officer. And she said to me, after the class, she said, you know, you and the other people, one of which was my husband, who had been coming in, he was teaching men I was teaching women, she said, the way that you are with people has just changed my entire orientation. And it was just so interesting, because she would, she would see things were always very intense in that environment. And I could tell my presence was disruptive, to the flow that they had. And my intention was not to be disruptive, but I recognized that just my presence there was, you know, so I didn't take it personally, like, people were, the CEOs were like, short with me, they're all dysregulated as well. And so I never took any that personally, and I would just try to be as professional and and grounded, you know, going into those types of environments recognizing nobody, here's regulated, but so but would remain regulated and and worked really hard to resource myself for that before going there. But that this woman's, you know, her and her partner, they come to the home studio, and she was just like, you know, I, I witnessed you with boundaries and firmness, but yet, like how you treated people was just eye opening to me. And it was just so interesting, because our intention was not to go in there and change the way the CEOs saw the inmates. It was it was to prevent like, like the overarching goal was to prevent recidivism, and, you know, getting people connected before they were released, working with the courts and probation, and having sort of like a transition for people. So our intention had nothing to do with the CEOs. But this person, it was just so interesting to me that like the way that that we cultivated presence in those spaces shifted and altered her path.

Josh Meeder: 29:30

Yeah, you wouldn't think I mean, when you're talking about a prison situation. The thoughts I think initially go to the inmates, right, but that is the larger staff and a beautiful thing to be able to give them a wider perspective. Just ask the question, How was that received? I'm sure there were some some inmates that were not open to receive it, but the ones that were what was an experience like for that was that to actually be seen how did that bring As a human, you know, their human spirit forward in just awful circumstances.

Rachel Allen: 30:06

Right? Well, the first class I taught in there, it was interesting, we worked for two years to get into the prison. And the prison itself was built for men. My husband was actually a union carpenter at the time, and he was part of building that facility. But in the challenges that my community have faced, more and more females were incarcerated, in fact, so many that they took over a whole wing, and a lot of them are mothers. So it was like a lot of disruption in the community. And there's a lot of judgment. There's a lot of judgment against anyone who's a parent that deals with addiction, but much more so against women who are mothers than then were fathers. And so the idea was to go in and help prevent recidivism and sort of connect people. But the first class that I went to teach every single woman had her Bible with her, and I was like, Oh, okay. Everyone has their Bible. This is so interesting. I was like, well, we won't be needing that book today. But you can put it aside. And it was actually very interesting, because I actually love teaching yoga to people that don't have any sort of experience with yoga studio culture, it's refreshing. And to be able to tell people that this is a practice that helps us cultivate the fluctuations of the mind, this is a practice that helps us address suffering. You know, nobody in my life had ever told me, Hey, this is how you deal with suffering. It was like suck it up, buttercup, or like, Oh, you poor thing. So there's something other than suck it up buttercup, or a pity party, you know, and this is, these are tools. And so I found that most people were hungry for those tools. Because no one ever teaches us how to deal with suffering, at least in my experience. It was suck it up, buttercup, or are you poor thing, oh, you poor thing. And it was like that neither of those are remotely helpful.

Josh Meeder: 32:00

No, in such a place where I see that a lot in the youth in our children today. We haven't. We haven't done a greatest job and building their resiliency, you know, this. You know, it's great, we make things good for our kids. But you know, my son taught me a great lesson one time, he, you know, did a young teenage boy dumb thing. And I was really upset. I was upset because he just didn't use his wisdom. You know, and he's a wise kid. But he's also it was a young boy made a bad mistake. And I was really, really frustrated. And he looked at me, and he's like, Dad, I know, you're just trying to protect me and don't want me to get hurt. But I got to learn, I got to make my own mistakes. And, you know, in that moment of just like, Oh, I'm so mad, I'm like, Oh, I'm so mad. You're so right. You know, you threw that wisdom right? Back, it was such a great teaching, and allowing our children to, to suffer or to fail, and helping them through with tools to understand what that is to build that resiliency. Right?

Rachel Allen: 33:03

And, and middle class America is afraid of doing that. It's like, you know, when I taught at St. Francis, it's like, the young people are taught to think that they're the center of the universe, and it's really harmful. You know, I think sometimes for people to I know, with my son, he was a, he's a, he's an amazing musician, you know, amazing, and people used to tell them all the time, you're so amazing, what an amazing, and I'm like UK, you, let's just put things in perspective, you're an excellent musician, that has nothing to do with your character. You know, if you want to be a good person, you have to have character. And just because you can play a guitar well, and play the violin and all these other instruments doesn't remotely mean that you're a good person don't get confused.

Josh Meeder: 33:50

I know. In our house, we had three roles, and they were up on the wall by on the kitchen it was do the right thing. Tell the truth. And behind those, like, for me, that was such a simple thing. It's like everything else, you know, any situation can fall within those rules, like did you do the right thing where you kinda did tell the truth? And, you know, so how you've talked a little bit about the adult work that you've done with with adults? How do you see this coming forward in children and giving more resources to our youth?

Rachel Allen: 34:24

I'm hopeful, you know, I see a lot more. I see a lot more openings for kids to learn more about mindfulness and their belief systems. I haven't been a big fan of a lot of the bullying programs are in schools, because I think that they teach very, like surface behavior types of things. And they use things like slogans, and they don't necessarily connect to belief systems. So that that I'm seeing a little bit of a shift from that, which I think is, you know, helpful. I mean, I think big You know, we've known for years psychologically, that punishment and reward is not like a belief system changer. But yet we still see those types of things in a lot of in our criminal justice system and schools. And so I, you know, I think that there's a, you know, I see some openings for that with with more mindfulness oriented things. I think a lot of young people have opportunities for service that I think are great that we didn't have a lot of that when I was younger, and I see like in our school district, which is school district that has a lot of poverty, and challenges. I love that the two service clubs in our school district are so active, and they're serving their own community. They're not like, here I am in the wealthy community coming down to serve the poor people. These are like, the students are like, these are the people these are my, this is my family. This is my neighbor. And it's to me there's there's such an enthusiasm in the young people that are in those service clubs, because they're serving their own people. They already know what their needs are, they don't need somebody else from like an ivory tower to come in and tell them what their needs are. They already know that. And they're, they're meeting their community. I love that. I think that's so powerful.

Josh Meeder: 36:24

Well, the the aspect of service, there was a book, it's not about you by Tom Rath, that was just a phenomenal book, a man who had all sorts of health problems. And when you go into service or support of other it's amazing how the attitude, the perspectives, and just actually the quality and well being in your own health can shift. Yeah, so right, so good. Have those those available to kids? Right. And to adults? Let's be frank, for everyone in the service of others.

Rachel Allen: 36:56

Right, right. And it can be humbling. I know, with the heart when I'm working with patients, sometimes what works for people, especially if they're in a lot of pain, or if they're actively dying, is playing three notes. So you know, you have to get out of your head and be like, I need to make this sound great. Because these people are sitting here in the room and I'm playing three notes. And they're probably like, what's going on with this harp player? Doesn't she know how to use her instrument? But you know, if you pay attention to this, you know, have you pay attention to what's needed? And you don't bring your own projections on there, which is really difficult. Really be of service but if you're doing it because you want validated or an award or sticker or you know, it yucky? Is it up a bit?

Josh Meeder: 37:42

Yep. Beautiful, humble. Curiosity is a great entry point to about any situation, right? So you so your book is out, we'll share how people can get access to this book. My favorite power passages is the closing passage, the daily blessings. And I just I love this, Rachael, if you'll bear with me, I'd like to read this to the audience. So this is a daily blessing. May you begin each day with a curious mind and an open heart. May the end of the day find you with your integrity intact. May you recognize longing as the soul's desire to evolve. May you value absurdity in the sacred in equal measures. And may you allow yourself to be held blessed and illuminated. So be it So may it be in Rachel that I just that resonated with me, specifically the point of valuing absurdity in the sacred in equal measures. Because without the long story that that just landed and because it is such a beautiful sacred gift that we have in this life, and it's also absurd in the whole scheme of the length of time of the planet, so we have to be intentional and we can't take ourselves too seriously and that just summed it up so so well.

Rachel Allen: 39:06

Right right. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Yeah, I love absurdity

Josh Meeder: 39:14

we should have t shirts practice absurdity, let's start the movement. All right. So with our absurdity practice already in and I very cautious on throwing ideas out with you because I know you are a dynamo and a powerhouse and a manifester of epic proportions. So when the book is out, we'll share that in the link but you're also working on a companion piece for this right what's coming up with this extension.

Rachel Allen: 39:42

So I'm basically sharing my process and and it'll show up in the form of the book is in three parts. And it'll show up with a preparatory practice how I how to gather support, gathering from the have, you know connecting to your values connecting to the teachings and the wisdom that inform you, which might be very different from mine. So I'm not telling people what their values are, but I'm inviting them to explore that. And then, you know, the exploration of all of these different parts, the exploration of what is the exploration of liminal space look like it through like a practice, and then maybe some questions to go deeper and then, and then having the blessing. So So sort of looking at it, some of my process and inviting people to explore that as a practice they could, they could certainly do it is like a whole experience, they could you know, the preparatory one, I think, is one, I draw from one of my main teachers, Joanna Macy, and another Buddhist teacher, Lama, Rod Owens. And it's a really lovely practice where you draw in your support to draw in the teachers, the mentors, and you can even imagine them walking beside you looking in your eyes wanting your hand, you draw in the teachings that you've metabolized and integrated, you know, not thinking about like, here's the quote, but but, you know, things that have landed in your body, dwelling on your your lineage, whether that be your blood lineage, your chosen lineage of like, for me, it's people that work with music and words and movement. You draw upon your ecosystem, you know, the ecosystem that you you are forged from, and you do that work from this place of having that support with you, you know, and which can be really, really helpful when we're dealing with challenging emotions. This isn't a substitute for therapy or mental health intervention, but it can be a complement to dealing with challenging things. I think the liminal the blessing for liminal space, um, like we're still, you know, we're still in liminal space, like work, you know, but it also like looking at that, like threshold time is seen in so many cultures is sacred. So what can we bring into that so so it's sort of like diving a little bit like into what produced the blessings, my process, giving specific practices and grace. People could do them in a group, they could do them as stand alones, if they're, I'm suggesting if they did in the standalones, to do the preparatory one with the supports for each, you know, process. It'll be one that people can use in workshops or classes, or however they want to use it, I'll probably guide for self

Josh Meeder: 42:29

or for their practice, whatever their practice may be to help.

Rachel Allen: 42:32

Right, right. If people could do it in as individuals, they could do it in community, you know, whatever. However, that shows up for people and I'll have that available as a free PDF on my website.

Josh Meeder: 42:45

Okay, we'll put all the links to your contact, you'll be able to find Rachel in the description here. The book blessings beyond bypass, first book out from seed House press, which just want to throw a little congratulations out to see how seedhouse press and acknowledge Kimberly MC L. Hatton, who helped bring this book forward with you. It's her dream, Kimberly is a good friend. She's also a integral part of my business. And she's a writing coach in her own own right. So a little shout out to Steve Howe House Press. Rachel, is there anything you'd like to leave us with here this afternoon.

Rachel Allen: 43:29

I just really appreciated the conversation. And I'm really blessed. I've had people share with me how they've been using the book. So that to me is really helpful. Not just like, hey, I read your book, it was great. But this is how I, you know, I used your book, one person, I do consulting work for a long term care facility. And one of the people who she's actually moving to another job, but she's like, I used your book to help me to practice discernment with my process. And that was really, I really was so appreciative of that. And that's the intention is for this to be a tool, you know, maybe some for some folks will be a one and done, you know, and that was great. Let me put it on the file. But I'm hoping that it can be a tool and then with the facilitators guide, even, you know, to dig even a little deeper with it. So I'm grateful to seedhouse press two because Kim, always Kim's like, Okay, now you need a facilitator Skye, because we're always talking about my process. She's like, people need to know that. This is helpful. So I love Kim from seedhouse press has been such an integral part of my development as a writer, you know, I came to her as a blogger and have published now on at least half a dozen platforms and I've like a byline with an international blog team and you know, she's she's just really good at like, you supporting me in my process. Okay, I know you can dive a little deeper Rachel, go for it. So

Josh Meeder: 45:00

Well, I am grateful for both of you. But specifically you, Rachel, for all that you're doing here in the community in in the world. The book, blessings beyond my PASS is available, I highly recommend it. And I'll share the story I told Rachel, I'm not a book reader. I love audiobooks, but I'm just not a book reader. So I'm like, I got to do the research. And I'll tell you what I dove in it is an easy read. It is so natural, and I can't recommend it enough. So go out, get your copy. There's instructions on how to use it. You can do it all at once. You can do it in daily chunks. But the best thing to do is open it up and just get started. It's a wonderful book. It is needed in these times. And again, Rachel, thank you for the time I look forward to seeing what's coming next and the next time we can play or dance together again. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you for watching. If you liked what you saw, be sure to hit that like and subscribe button right now. Stay tuned and check out the channel for other interesting and informative videos.